Elegies (II), by Theognis

Theognis of Megara was a Greek lyric poet, active in approximately the sixth century BC. The work is quite typical of the time, featuring ethical maxims and practical advice about life, while the entire body of his work (almost 1400 lines known as the Elegies) is valued today for its ‘warts and all’ portrayal of aristocratic life in archaic Greece.

A considerable portion of the text, which is considered to be a separate work included in the Elegies by a later compiler, relates Theognis’s doomed love affairs with young men, and his subsequent preoccupation with ageing.

The majority of images above are of ANTINOUS, a Greek youth and a favourite of the Roman emperor Hadrian. He was deified after his death, being worshiped in both the Greek East and Latin West, sometimes as a god (theos) and sometimes merely as a deified mortal (heroes). See: The Temple of Antinous, Ecclesia Antinoi